Wednesday, October 17, 2012
AND STILL COUNTING
Today is my thirty third anniversary of being clean and sober.
In one way there is not a lot to it. It is 33 years of staying away from a drink or drug a day at a time. That way that we have of breaking the thing down into managable bits.
At first, the idea of going without a drink for the rest of one's life is too daunting for many an alcoholic. Let's just take today. If you want to drink, wait until tomorrow.
I won't bore with the long story, actually mercifully short time, of my wild sled ride down the hill of daily drinking. Suffice to say that I was bad enough to want out of it badly enough and was willing to go to any length to have that happen.
Willingness to go any length is pretty much a requirement of any success in putting it down.
I went to a detox hospital which was medically based. Not all of them are. I mean medical from the tips of its toes to the top of its sober little head.
Nurses took me in, nurses gave me the shots of the cocktails that would put me out for 24 hours. Nurses woke me up and took care of me. A doctor oversaw the processes of early physical recovery.
For the rest, they had Alcoholics Anonymous, the book, to read and Meetings at night brought in by volunteer groups from the outside.
Today, detox and recovery facilities can tend to the psychological or the instrument of some pet theory about addiction. Not so where I went.
I was covered by insurance for 28 days and that is how long I stayed. By the time I got out I was in pretty good physical shape and a terrible mess mentally.
I couldn't read. I was disoriented. I was missing a main ingredient of stability in my life.
I went to an AA Meeting.
There I found out all I have ever needed to know about staying sober. I had faith that the people I met knew how to do it and then so could I.
Simple faith and a willingness to take suggestions.
There is a book, the book. There are various types of Meetings. There are the famous Steps. There are many, many recovering drunks from all sides of life whose own sobriety depends on giving their Program away to new comers.
This is based on the simple story of BIll Wilson, a stockbroker, who found that the only way he could keep sober was to find another drunk to work with. He found Dr. Bob Smith. Together they found a third guy and then the groups began to form. About 75 years ago.
Nothing too mysterious.
There is no organization as such running AA groups. There is an organization necessary to print literature and to help pass the message. That is about it.
Very simple.
I am active "member" still today. You are a member if you say so.
I sponsor people who, like me, want to stay sober. We work the Steps in our daily life.
There is no secret handshake or dues to be paid.
I won't say much more about it.
We are everywhere if someone needs us. In my Valley alone there are 300 groups, more or less, who meet each week.
Look in your phone book.
See? The whole purpose of writing this down is to pass enough on to others that it does me some good on this day.
